


Dear Sister

by CourtneyCourtney



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Episode Tag, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Spoilers for "DFW"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-03 21:15:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17291576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CourtneyCourtney/pseuds/CourtneyCourtney
Summary: Gina doesn't talk to him for four days. Not so much as a text.(or, post-"DFW", Jake and Gina talk about their relationship)





	Dear Sister

**Author's Note:**

> The tone of that scene at the beginning of "DFW" where Jake was explaining he had a half-sister to Gina struck me as odd, so here I am over-analyzing it a year later. I don’t usually sympathize with Gina, but having the guy friend whose family you consider your own declare that he’s finally a brother must have been rough.
> 
> When in doubt of what to do for a beat, describe Boyle eating something weird.
> 
> I used "Dear Sister" as a placeholder title until I thought of something better, but every time I came back to it I cracked the fuck up, so you and I have to live with it. (For reference, it's the official title of the Lonely Island "mmm whatcha say" skit.)

Gina doesn't talk to him for four days. Not so much as a text.

Jake knows he should know why, but his brain can't quite get there after the weird, weird weekend he and Amy just had, plus the epiphany that had him doing an honest-to-God race to the airport to stop Kate from getting on the plane. Kate’s great, but she’s a lot to handle, even for the world’s most amazing detective-slash-genius and his even more amazing fiancée.

So Jake thinks for a day or two. As much as he wants to rush in and demand answers, he doesn't. He drinks more coffee than is probably safe, and he investigates a new case like the badass he is, and he thinks.

Of course Gina is busy, both with work and her daughter. But it isn’t like her to ignore her duties in favor of gossiping, especially when it’s talk about girls. Jake can’t help but think that if Kate were some rando he’d been on a date with instead of his half-sister, Gina would be all over his case, asking for details.

“Son of a bitch,” Jake says out loud when the second half of his brain catches up to the half of his brain that had that thought in the first place.

Charles looks up from his vegan eggplant moussaka. “What, what’s wrong?” He scowls. “Did you burn your tongue on your Hot Pocket again?”

Jake pulls out his phone. “No, I just thought of something.” He taps out a quick text – _u busy tonite??_

Gina’s reply is instant. _New phone, who dis_  

Jake looks at it for a minute. Of course she’s joking, but it’s not as devastatingly witty as Gina typically is in such matters _. OK if I stop by w/ pizza like 8?_ he writes.

 _It’s a free country_ , Gina texts back. Jake drums his fingers on the breakroom table. He’s about to ask what kind of pizza she wants just to be saying something when his phone buzzes again. _Make it 7, Iggy needs her beauty sleep. No pineapples anchovies goat cheese or gluten-free crap._

 _Roger that_ , Jake replies. It’s only when Sarge sticks his head in to ask for Jake and Boyle’s help when Jake realizes there wasn’t a single emoji in any of Gina’s texts. He really screwed the pooch on this one.

 

*****

 

Jake shuffles the liter of soda into the crook of his arm not balancing two pizzas, then uses his free hand to bang on the apartment door. "Gina?"

He stands in the hallway in silence. No answer.

"Gina?" Jake yells, banging with his foot this time. Still no answer.

Jake brings his knee up to thump on the door. "G to the I to the N to the A?"

"Give me a 'haaaayyy!'" yells a voice from the other side.

" _Haaaaayyyy!_ " Jake obliges with a grin.

The door opens a crack, and then Gina is peering out. She looks Jake up and down, humming in thought.

"Yes," she says after a moment. "This pleases me." She pops the door the rest of the way open, then throws an arm out toward the apartment interior. "You may enter."

Jake obliges, marveling at the familiar space. It seems like a lifetime since this pad was _his_ , before Gina's apartment and then Amy's brownstone became _his_. Now it's a home, Enigma Linetti's first ever living space.

The door has barely clicked shut before Gina is talking, arms folded across her chest. "Why didn’t you tell me you had a half-sister? Nay, half-sister _s_ , plural."

"Oh," says Jake, glancing down at the stack of pizza boxes still in his hands. "I guess we’re just getting right into it then."

"Did you know that Amy texted me at one point last weekend about how Kate’s visit was going?" Gina continues, walking across the room to pick Enigma up out of her bouncy swing. She throws a dark look over her shoulder. " _Amy_. My second-favorite person in the Peralta-Santiago relationship. Did you not think I wouldn’t have loved to meet this bitch? She put glass in her food and hooked up with a human statue! If I didn’t grow up here, that probably would have been two hits off my bucket list!"

"Gina, I'm sorry," Jake says, and he means it. "I don't know why I didn't say anything before she came. I just... figured you'd be busy with Iggy." It's a lame excuse, but Jake can't help dragging his feet. He's not always good at cutting right to the bone, especially with one of his oldest friendships in the balance.

"Just because I have a kid doesn't mean I don't want to hang out anymore," Gina tells him, shifting Enigma onto one hip so she can flip her hair out of her face. "I mean, I do have a life outside of you."

"Naturally," says Jake.

"But that doesn't mean I don't want to be asked, I guess," Gina finishes, crossing the room to plop down on the couch. Jake looks around the room awkwardly, looks down at the pizzas still in his arms before placing them on the coffee table. "You have Amy to share everything with now, which is awesome, but it’s just… kind of a bummer."

Jake stares the pizzas. "Because we grew up together?"

"You said you were finally going to be a brother," Gina replies. Her voices wavers. Jake's sure her face wouldn't show anything, but he's too ashamed to look up. "We've been buds for literal ever, your mom is basically my mom. It's just... dumb. God, you're so dumb."

"Gina..." Jake looks up. He isn't sure where he's going with that thought. She's right; he's kind of an idiot about this.

Gina's face crumples, a mix of sadness and anger. "You’re supposed to tell me these things!" she yells, covering Iggy's ears as her voice raises. "You didn’t tell me you reached out to your half-siblings! Like, you mentioned you had them after you found out, but… I don’t know. And I know we aren't as close as we used to be - "

"Whaaaat?" Jake interrupts. "Gina, that's crazy. We see each other every day at work."

"Work friends aren't real friends," Gina snaps. "Remember how many hoops Terry made you jump through before he would admit you guys were bros? It was super embarrassing."

"Right, well," says Jake, "Terry isn't as magnetic and generous as you are."

"Obviously," says Gina.

"And I guess, I mean, it _has_ been a while since we hung outside of work," Jake concedes. "I just figured, you know, you would want some space. Some time to bond with Iggy and... Milton?"

Gina waves Jake off with her free hand. "He's out of the picture. He's doing the whole pro snowboarding circuit and I'm not about that life. Snow is disgusting. I guess.." She scrunches up her face, like she's actually choosing her words. "It feels weird being single when, again, you have Amy."

"And you have a baby!" Jake counters. "Look at how incredi-mazing and grown-up we are!" He gestures at the apartment around them. "Remember when Nana lived here? She'd be like so impressed at us right now!"

Gina smiles. "Cute," she says, "but you're not gonna get me back that easily. Appeals to nostalgia are so 2017."

"Right," Jake replies. "So... how do we make this better?" He snaps his fingers, struck by inspiration. "Ooh! Play dates!"

Gina looks down at her daughter. "Meh. Iggy's too young to really grasp that concept. Also she's a million times better than all the other babies at that weirdo daygroup we go to."

"I meant with me," says Jake.

"Ew," says Gina. "Creepy."

"Not like _play date_ play dates, like Uncle Playtime."

" _Ew_ ," says Gina. "You are really not helping your case."

"Family bonding!" Jake exclaims. "I want. To spend time. With your daughter. In a not-creepy way! In a family way. No, wait, that sounds wrong, too. God, why are words like this?"

"Jake," says Gina.

"Right, starting over," Jake replies. "How about once a week, we get together outside of work, take Iggy for a walk in Central Park and get pretzels and junk, then you and I can watch a movie or something? Like a friend date."

"No Amy?" Gina asks.

"Sometimes Amy," Jake replies, opening one of the pizza boxes and grabbing a slice. "Since she's basically my wife and she's important to me. But not starting off." He takes a bite of pizza, letting his brain work again. "Maybe we could see if she'll hang with Iggy while the two of us go out, get some one-on-one time. I wanna get to know who you are now, you know?"

Gina sits in silence for a minute, then raises her left leg and pokes Jake in the thigh with her toes. "Hey, get me a slice. I don't want to wake up The Senator."

Jake snorts. "What, she's too good to be a princess?"

"It's an empty title," Gina replies. Jake hands her a piece of pizza, watching her shift Iggy a little so she can maneuver the food to her mouth. "Iggy has to know where the real power is in the system so she's capable of achieving it." She takes a few more bites of pizza.

"And I'll consider your proposal," Gina adds when Jake's starting to think she's gonna keep avoiding it. "You seem like a pretty cool person now, too."

"Cool," says Jake, throwing a small smile her way. "Cool cool. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Kate. But I will in the future, 'cause you deserve it. I think you deserve to meet my sisters, if that's something you're into."

"Yes, oh God, please!" Gina says around a mouthful of pizza. "Especially if they're half as messy as Kate."

Jake laughs again. "They can't all be, but - "

"I've met your dad," Gina interrupts, "yes, they can be."

" _Fine_ ," says Jake. "But I'm sure some of them will appreciate your knowledge of knockoff merchandise and unmarked warehouse danceclubs."

"Damn straight they will," Gina replies. "It runs in the family."

Jake smiles at her, the sight of his oldest friend with pizza grease on her face and a sleeping infant in a bedazzled onesie in her arms. "Yeah. For sure, for sure sure it does."


End file.
